Tottenham Hotspur manager Mauricio Pochettino said he must now be “realistic” about their Champions League hopes after losing to Aston Villa.

Christian Benteke scored the only goal of the game as Spurs slipped to seventh in the table, seven points of City who have played a game less.

In his post match press conference, Pochettino said: “It is difficult to fight for the top four after the last two games, we have to be realistic. Burnley and Villa were difficult games. With a player like Benteke they are always dangerous but our performance was not good.

“It is very difficult, we have only six games to go but now we must increase our performances but it is not easy, we need to win all points.”

Villa pressed the home side into a countless number of misplaced passes, something which Spurs have been renowned for doing to other sides this season.

This was Tottenham’s first home defeat since a 2-1 loss to Stoke way back in November and the performance mirrored that afternoon’s display.

Pochettino denied that Harry Kane’s failure to score in the past two games had anything to do with him taking up the captains armband in the absence of Hugo Lloris.

He said: “No it is not [about the captaincy], it is about the striker having a good moment to score but not about the armband.

“The first half was difficult because made it difficult for ourselves. We did not manage the ball properly. Their goal was our mistake and it was a similar line to the last game against Burnley.”

Spurs now face trips to Newcastle and Southampton before hosting Manchester City as they will now need to win all their remaining games to stand any chance of getting into the top four which looks perilously out of reach.